Yesterday (Friday) about mid-day we finally got a call from Chicago saying that they had what they wanted from Tufts and are ready to go ahead with the surgery on Tuesday. Talk about last minute — in a few minutes we’ll be getting in taxi to go to the airport! This was an exasperating week. At the end of each day Tufts had told us that everything was in the process of being worked out and they would pay 100% for everything no problem, don’t worry etc., etc. and then the following morning we’d get a call from Chicago saying they were cancelling the surgery. That’s what happened on Thursday. I was in the middle of class and got a call from Daisy, the insurance coordinator for Dr. Bauer’s office. She told me to forget it because Tufts just wasn’t coming through (more or less). Then I called Kim, the woman dealing with our case at Tufts, told her what they told me and she said “Who said that? That’s not at all the case”, blah, blah, blah. Then I realized that the absurdity of it is that Chicago wants their “guarentee” of payment through a specific contract and they want it signed. That’s understandable. Then Tufts probably wanted something vague like: the word “COVERED” stamped on their letterhead. So Chicago says to the patient “forget it” expecting the patient to go nuts at the last minute and put pressure on the insurance company to give them exactly what they want. The problem here is that the patient is in the middle with little recourse, not knowing what the hell to do and what’s true, right and just hype on the part of either side (insurance co. or doctors/hospital). Dr. Bauer did send me a note kind of apologizing for the uncomfortable situation which was considerate of him. In any case we are on to Chicago for Ella’s plastic surgery. Hopefully the results will be worth all the trouble and not too painful or difficult for Ella.